UMass defense steps up in 78-69 win at St. Bonaventure

Republican photo by David MolnarUMass guard Anthony Gurley, seen here in action earlier this season vs. Dayton, pumped in a game-high 28 points to lead the Minutemen to a 78-69 win at St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night.

By RODNEY McKISSIC

OLEAN, N.Y. – It was clear early on that Massachusetts wanted to muzzle St. Bonaventure’s scoring options of Andrew Nicholson, Ogo Adegboye and Demitrius Conger, and they were quite successful in an impressive road victory.

St. Bonaventure, which lost three consecutive games before last Saturday’s victory at George Washington, lost to UMass on Wednesday, 78-69, in front of 3,332 at the Reilly Center.

St. Bonaventure falls to 10-9 overall and 2-3 in the Atlantic 10, while UMass moves up to 12-7 and 3-2 in league play.

Anthony Gurley scored a game-high 28 for UMass, which has won three of four.

"We set the tone early on defense, making stop after stop,'' said Gurley, who has 59 points in his last two games.

The Minutemen had a 21-8 lead at one point. Only once, at 3-0, did they trail in this one.

"We've won two games on the road (at Charlotte and St. Bonaventure), places that are tough for visitors to win. I think that shows the resiliency and character of our team.''

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Javorn Farrell scored 16 points for UMass, hitting six of nine field goals. The Minutemen received strong second-half defense from seldom-used Matt Hill, a forward.

Sampson Carter had nine rebounds for UMass. Sean Carter had eight, and the unrelated Carters combined for nine of UMass' 12 offensive boards.

The Minutemen also shot 52.7 percent, and held the Bonnies to 35.7 percent shooting.

The victory was UMass' 12th, matching the total by coach Derek Kellogg in each of his first two seasons.

After a harrowing trip to Olean, which required an emergency plane landing in Albany, N.Y., UMass elected to stay over in Western New York Wednesday night, rather than risk weather problems in flight.

Marquise Simmons came off the bench to score 14 for St. Bonaventure, but Nicholson, Adegboye and Conger combined to shoot 8-for-25. Nicholson, the league’s leading scorer, finished with 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting. He scored a season-low nine points on 3-of-10 shooting at Rhode Island. Adegboye didn’t score his first field goal until less than a minute left with the Bonnies trailing 73-64.

A block by Nicholson ignited a fastbreak layup by Simmons off a feed from freshman guard Matthew Wright with 14:35 left to pull the Bonnies within two at 45-43. But Gurley scored seven points during a 12-2 UMass run that expanded the lead to 57-45.

The Minutemen jumped out to an 18-8 lead as the Bonnies misfired on 11 of their first 14 shots. UMass’ 3-2 zone was a major hindrance and Bona wasn’t getting back on defense, which led to some fastbreak layups for the Minutemen. They made 7 of 13 to start the game before finally cooling off.

Meanwhile, the Bonnies connected. St. Bonaventure cut the lead to five at 23-18 on a three-pointer by Wright, but the Minutemen took a 39-28 lead following a basket by Gurley on a goaltending call on Nicholson.

After trading timeouts with four seconds left, the Bonnies inbounded to Ogo Adegboye, who found Sam De Haas in the right corner for a three-pointer and St. Bonaventure trailed 39-31 at halftime. De Haas made the shot near the UMass bench and coach Derek Kellogg buried his head into his chest.

Six of the Bonnies’ eight field goals in the half were three-pointers. Overall the Bonnies shot 8 of 25 and UMass did its job containing Nicholson with double teams. The A-10 leader at 20.1 points a game, Nicholson had just three points on 1 of 5 shooting by halftime.

Wright, who scored a career-high 18 points to earn the league’s co-rookie of the week honors, led the Bonnies off the bench with eight points. Gurley had 10 first-half points for the Minutemen.

St. Bonaventure had beaten UMass just twice in its last 10 meetings, the last time on Jan. 20 of last year, 70-69 on the road.